The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to additive manufacturing systems and, more particularly, to methods and systems for fabricating a component using at least one laser device generating a non-uniform energy intensity profile along scan paths generated at least partially based on a functional relationship between a generating path and each point of a plurality of points of each scan path.
At least some additive manufacturing systems involve the buildup of a particulate material to make a component. This method facilitates producing complex components from expensive materials at a reduced cost and with improved manufacturing efficiency. At least some known additive manufacturing systems, such as Direct Metal Laser Melting (DMLM), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) and LaserCusing systems, fabricate components using a focused energy source, such as a laser device or an electron beam generator, a build platform, and a particulate, such as, without limitation, a powdered metal. The focused energy source device melts the particulate material on the build platform in and around the area where the focused energy source is incident on the particulate material, resulting in at least one melt pool. Each melt pool cools and forms at least a portion of the next layer in the build process.
In systems like DMLM, the laser beam or electron beam is used to scan a layer of powder to sinter and melt the desired pattern in the layers of the powder bed. The typical scanning time for such systems per layer is in the range of 70-100 seconds. For certain parts, the build time requires days of processing time. The time required to scan a component per layer prevents significant cost benefits associated with additive manufacturing from being fully realized. Another problem of DMLM systems is rapid, and sometimes inconsistent, cooling rates that result in the temperature of some portions of the component falling below a required minimum temperature.